Can DWZ continue his try scoring run? How will Walsh back up after Game 2? Can Drinkwater keep up his red-hot form? There were so many questions coming out of round 16 and some of them were answered in round 17. But let's turn our attention back to fantasy footy for a second and identify some risers in form and others who should be falling out of favour with all fantasy coaches. Let us know your thoughts on who we have down below on all of our social channels: twitter, facebook, instagram, discord.
RISERS
Izak Tago – CTR, Penrith Panthers (64 points)
Tago had a huge game against the Knights. What really impressed me about this performance was the number of times he went looking for the ball. He made 21 carries for a total of 222 running metres and this was a season high. He also had a season high in tackle breaks making 11 of these. Not often do we see centres score 60+ points without scoring a try or having any try assists, line breaks or line break assists. Tago has shown in his last two outings that he is able to score 55+ points in multiple ways and not many centres are able to do this. With the Panthers being one of the better teams in the NRL, Tago may now have put himself on many GDS coaches’ radars.
Dallin Watene-Zelezniak – WFB, New Zealand Warriors (97 points)
Dallin may have had the best game of his career against the Dragons. In this performance he came away with 4 tries, 1 try assist, 5 line breaks, 2 tackle breaks and 2 offloads on attack, this came to 76 points. He has been in great try scoring form and now has 10 tries in the last 5 games. The Warriors have been favoring their right edge attack lately and there isn’t any reason why they won’t continue to do so. With Dallin being a winger, he will always be a boom or bust play and will rely heavily on scoring tries to be fantasy relevant. If GDS coaches had him in their team this week, what a master stroke!
Scott Drinkwater – WFB, North Queensland Cowboys (71 points)
Drinkwater was outstanding as the Cowboys earned themselves a comfortable victory against the Bunnies. In this performance he came away with 1 field goal, 3 try assists, 2 line breaks, 1 line break assist and 11 tackle breaks on attack, this came to 66 points. He also ran for 216 metres but lost 25 points through missed tackles and errors. Drinkwater is the inform WFB at the moment and has averaged 66 points over his last five games. On attack he seems to have a roaming role and can touch the ball multiple times during one set. This is what we want to see as GDS Fantasy coaches as the more often WFBs touch the ball, the more likely they are to score fantasy points. The Cowboys are on a bit of a role at the moment and are on a three game winning streak. With the Wests Tigers up next for the Cowboys, I think coaches may have to seriously consider Drinkwater for their round 18 squads.
FALLERS
Jaydn Su’a – EDG, St George Illawarra Dragons (18 points)
Su’a had one of his worst games of the season in a disappointing Dragons performance against the inform Warriors. In attack he only came away with 2 points from 1 offload. On defence he missed 6 tackles and gave away 1 penalty, that’s 22 points in demerits. Since round 7, Su’a hadn’t had a score of less than 40 points until this week. He had been one of the more consistent edges over the last couple of months and this sort of performance might just be a one off. With rumors of Ben Hunt possibly moving to the Broncos for the remainder of the season, Su’a may be an avoid if these rumors are true. The Dragons have been struggling most of the season and if their main playmaker is to leave the club, who knows what their attack will look like for the remainder of the season.
Reece Walsh – WFB, Brisbane Broncos (-12 points)
It may have been best for GDS Fantasy coaches if Walsh had a week off after Origin as he now has the lowest score of any player this season. On attack he only registered 1 tackle break and 2 offloads, but it was demerits that would have really frustrated the coaches that started him. He had 5 missed tackles, 5 errors and conceded 2 penalties, that’s a whopping 43 points in demerits. However, I really think Walsh was unlucky due to no fault of his own. There were a number of tries that were called back due obstruction or forward passes. Walsh would have had a hand in all the tries including scoring one himself. I’m aware that this really counts for nothing, but I just wanted to point out that his score could have quite easily been 40-50 points.
Reagan Campbell-Gillard – MID, Parramatta Eels (20 points)
RCG has looked out of sorts since returning from injury in round 15. He has been fantasy relevant on occasions in the past but at the moment he just isn’t getting enough minutes to be relevant. I think this is because the Eels have had relatively easy games since his return from injury and Brad Arthur maybe just easing him back into the fold due to the six weeks he spent on the sidelines. To begin the season RCG scored a 50 in 59 minutes and a 66 in 65 minutes, he also 83 in 52 minutes in round 7. He can have decent scores in him, but he just lacks the consistency compared to other MIDs. Until he starts getting bigger minutes, RCG is a clear avoid for me. Even if he was to get 60 minutes on a regular basis, he would still be a boom or bust play for me.
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